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Allogeneic blood transfusions nearly doubled the risk of in-hospital infections, including sepsis and Clostridium difficile, and increased the risk almost fivefold for in-hospital mortality among patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery, a study said. The procedure also increased the chances of readmission and postdischarge mortality. "The safety of patients undergoing CABG will likely be improved if hospitals carefully review current guidelines on allogeneic blood transfusion, closely adhere to such guidelines and institute interventions to reduce inappropriate use of blood transfusions in recipients of CABG," the researchers said.

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An analysis of data from 50,330 hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients found that those with ulcerative colitis had higher rates of certain opportunistic infections and in-hospital mortality. For patients with Crohn's disease, the rates of opportunistic infection and inpatient mortality were comparable to the rates for matched controls. The specific infections found more often among patients with ulcerative colitis were tuberculosis and cytomegalovirus with allogeneic transplants and invasive fungal infections with autologous transplants. The findings were reported at the Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases meeting.

A study presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy found that the average in-hospital mortality rate for cirrhosis patients with Clostridium difficile infections was 15.9%, compared with 8.9% of cirrhosis patients without the infection. Average hospital stays were 9.11 days longer for cirrhosis patients with Clostridium difficile, according to the analysis of 2009 data.

Patients who had significant bleeding following percutaneous coronary intervention had a 12% greater risk of in-hospital mortality than those without bleeding, a study indicated. Bleeding is also associated with increased risk of stroke, heart attack and blood transfusion, as well as longer hospitalization, rehospitalization and greater hospital expenditures, researchers note. The findings were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Allogeneic blood transfusions nearly doubled the risk of in-hospital infections, including sepsis and Clostridium difficile, and increased the risk almost fivefold for in-hospital mortality among patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery, a study said. The procedure also increased the chances of readmission and postdischarge mortality. "The safety of patients undergoing CABG will likely be improved if hospitals carefully review current guidelines on allogeneic blood transfusion, closely adhere to such guidelines and institute interventions to reduce inappropriate use of blood transfusions in recipients of CABG," the researchers said.

British researchers said they were able to predict who among thalassemia patients would experience heart failure by using a magnetic resonance scanner to measure the heart's levels of iron, which could accumulate dangerously after patients receive blood transfusions. The method reduced deaths by 71%, according to the study. The technique could significantly help in managing patients with the disease, a government spokesman said.